Carlos Castaneda The Teachings of Don Juan
Don Juan’s Key Teachings from Castaneda’s 1st book
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July 23rd, 2024
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The reading of my compilation of Carlos Castaneda's books begins on this MP3
MP3 #1
The following in blue is actually from the introduction but it is what corresponds with this first mp3 recording.
For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we all know, is only a
description that has been pounded into you from the moment you were born. The reality of our day-to-day life, then, consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we have learned to make in common. I am teaching you how to see as opposed to merely
looking, and stopping the world is the
first step to seeing.
The sorcerer's description of the world is perceivable. But our
insistence on holding on to our standard version of reality renders
us almost deaf and blind to it. When you begin this teaching, there is another reality, that is to
say, there is a sorcery description of the world, which you do not
know. As a sorcerer and a teacher, I am teaching you that
description. What I am doing with you consists, therefore, in setting
up that unknown reality by unfolding its description, adding
increasingly more complex parts as you go along.
In order to arrive at seeing one first has to stop
the world. Stopping the world is indeed an
appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the
reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of
interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been
stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In this case
the set of circumstances alien to our normal flow of interpretations
is the sorcery description of the world. The precondition for
stopping the world is that one has to be convinced; in
other words, one has to learn the new description in a total sense,
for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way
break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity
of our perceptions, or our reality of the world, is not to be
questioned.
After stopping the world the next step is
seeing. By that I mean what could be categorized as
responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the
description we have learned to call reality.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear,
with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or
going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it
will live to regret his steps.
When a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no mistakes
for which he will have to account; under such conditions his acts
lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts. If such a man fails, or
suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be
no pitiful regrets over that.
* * *
A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships
of learning, a man who has, without rushing or without faltering,
gone as far as he can in unravelling the secrets of power and
knowledge. To become a man of knowledge one must challenge and defeat
his four natural enemies.
When a man starts to learn, he is never clear about his objectives.
His purpose is faulty; his intent is vague. He hopes for rewards that
will never materialize for he knows nothing of the hardships of
learning.
He slowly begins to learn--bit by bit at first, then in big chunks.
And his thoughts soon clash. What he learns is never what he
pictured, or imagined, and so he begins to be afraid. Learning is
never what one expects. Every step of learning is a new task, and the
fear the man is experiencing begins to mount mercilessly,
unyieldingly. His purpose becomes a battlefield.
And thus he has stumbled upon the first of his natural enemies: fear!
A terrible enemy--treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It remains
concealed at every turn of the way, prowling, waiting. And if the
man, terrified in its presence, runs away, his enemy will have put an
end to his quest and he will never learn. He will never become a man
of knowledge. He will perhaps be a bully, or a harmless, scared man;
at any rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put
an end to his cravings.
It is not possible for a man to abandon himself to fear for years,
then finally conquer it. If he gives in to fear he will never conquer
it, because he will shy away from learning and never try again. But
if he tries to learn for years in the midst of his fear, he will
eventually conquer it because he will never have really abandoned
himself to it.
Therefore he must not run away. He must defy his fear, and in spite
of it he must take the next step in learning, and the next, and the
next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the
rule! And a moment will come when his first enemy retreats. The man
begins to feel sure of himself. His intent becomes stronger. Learning
is no longer a terrifying task.
When this joyful moment comes, the man can say without hesitation
that he has defeated his first natural enemy. It happens little by
little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly and fast. Once a man
has vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his life
because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity--a clarity of mind
which erases fear. By then a man knows his desires; he knows how to
satisfy those desires. He can anticipate the new steps of learning
and a sharp clarity surrounds everything. The man feels that nothing
is concealed.
And thus he has encountered his second enemy: Clarity! That clarity
of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels fear, but also blinds.
It forces the man never to doubt himself. It gives him the assurance
he can do anything he pleases, for he sees clearly into everything.
And he is courageous because he is clear, and he stops at nothing
because he is clear. But all that is a mistake; it is like something
incomplete. If the man yields to this make-believe power, he has
succumbed to his second enemy and will be patient when he should
rush. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of
learning anything more. His second enemy has just stopped him cold
from trying to become a man of knowledge. Instead, the man may turn
into a buoyant warrior, or a clown. Yet the clarity for which he has
paid so dearly will never change to darkness and fear again. He will
be clear as long as he lives, but he will no longer learn, or yearn
for, anything.
He must do what he did with fear: he must defy his clarity and use it
only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking
new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a
mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his
clarity was only a point before his eyes. And thus he will have
overcome his second enemy, and will arrive at a position where
nothing can harm him anymore. This will not be a mistake. It will not
be only a point before his eyes. It will be true power.
He will know at this point that the power he has been pursuing for so
long is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His ally
is at his command. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around
him. But he has also come across his third enemy: Power!
Power is the strongest of all enemies. And naturally the easiest
thing to do is to give in; after all, the man is truly invincible. He
commands; he begins by taking calculated risks, and ends in making
rules, because he is a master.
A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing in on him.
And suddenly, without knowing, he will certainly have lost the
battle. His enemy will have turned him into a cruel, capricious man,
but he will never lose his clarity or his power.
A man who is defeated by power dies without really knowing how to
handle it. Power is only a burden upon his fate. Such a man has no
command over himself, and cannot tell when or how to use his
power.
Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is nothing he can
do. It is not possible, for instance, that a man who is defeated by
power may see his error and mend his ways. Once a man gives in he is
through. If, however, he is temporarily blinded by power, and then
refuses it, his battle is still on. That means he is still trying to
become a man of knowledge. A man is defeated only when he no longer
tries, and abandons himself.
He has to come to realize that the power he has seemingly conquered
is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line at all times,
handling carefully and faithfully all that he has learned. If he can
see that clarity and power, without his control over himself, are
worse than mistakes, he will reach a point where everything is held
in check. He will know then when and how to use his power. And thus
he will have defeated his third enemy.
The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of learning, and
almost without warning he will come upon the last of his enemies: Old
age! This enemy is the cruelest of all, the one he won't be able to
defeat completely, but only fight away.
This is the time when a man has no more fears, no more impatient
clarity of mind--a time when all his power is in check, but also the
time when he has an unyielding desire to rest. If he gives in totally
to his desire to lie down and forget, if he soothes himself in
tiredness, he will have lost his last round, and his enemy will cut
him down into a feeble old creature. His desire to retreat will
overrule all his clarity, his power, and his knowledge.
But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate though,
he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the brief
moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last, invincible enemy.
That moment of clarity, power, and knowledge is enough.
Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in
mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow
it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such
clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know
that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or
to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do.
But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of
fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and
deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.
This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path
have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are
paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I
could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere.
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it
doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a
heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as
you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse
your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a
heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must
choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and
when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart,
the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to
deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never
enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand,
a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking
it.
I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from fear and
ambition. The desire to learn is not ambition. It is our lot as men
to want to know.
The path without a heart will turn against men and destroy them. It
does not take much to die, and to seek death is to seek nothing.
For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on
any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only
worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there
I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly.
Introduction
1. The Teachings of don Juan
2. A Separate Reality
3. Journey to Ixtlan
4. Tales Of Power
5. The Second Ring of Powerr
6. The Eagle's Gift
7. The Fire From Within
8. The Power of Silence
9. The Art of Dreaming
12. The Active Side of Infinity
13. Appendix A thru E
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